In this book, Dr. Bahrke and Dr. Nohr introduce psychotherapists and psychoanalysts to how they can work with Katathym Imaginative Psychotherapy (KIP) at the current level of psychodynamic knowledge. The method is a method of psychodynamic psychotherapy introduced by Hanscarl Leuner in 1955 under the name "Katathymes Bilderleben" and further developed since then. The authors clearly show the state of the art in case studies and in a systematic presentation.

About the method:

How does KIP work? The therapeutic practice is based on the inclusion of imaginations in the therapy process. Unconscious desires, conflicts, their defense as well as the transference relationship are thus symbolically illustrated. The imaginations stimulated and accompanied by the therapist are a valuable supplement to the psychodynamic process of understanding and, in addition to conversation, open up an affect-related, motivation-promoting access route in the treatment of many disturbance patterns in short and long-term therapies. In contrast to other psychotherapy methods that use imaginations, imaginations in KIP are understood as a component of relational work, taking transference and resistance into account.

Written for ...

Psychodynamically working psychotherapists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts who work with imaginations, as well as all colleagues interested in figurative language, metaphors and dreams.

Dr medical habil. Ulrich Bahrke, psychoanalyst (DPV/IPA) and training analyst (DGPT), specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy (FMH) in private practice in Zurich. Specialist in psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, specialist in neurology/psychiatry, 1991-2007 senior physician at the Clinic and Polyclinic for Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 2001-2009 chairman of the Central German Institute for Psychoanalysis Halle (MIP), 2007 - 2021 active at the Sigmund Freud Institute Frankfurt, from 2010 - 2015  head of the Institute's Outpatient Clinic and clinical director of the LAC Depression Study. 2009 habilitation, 2009/2010 substitute professorship and longstanding private lectureship at the Institute for Psychoanalysis of the Department of Education/Human Sciences of the University of Kassel. Lecturer and former board member of the Mitteldeutsche Gesellschaft für Katathymes Bilderleben (MGKB) and lecturer of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Katathymes Bilderleben (AGKB), teaching the method, for example, as a former co-organizer of the Berlin training seminar of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Katathym Imaginative Psychotherapie (DGKIP) and at the Lindau Psychotherapy Weeks.

Dr. phil. Karin Nohr, studied literature, didactic-methodical training of student teachers, and studied psychology. She is a graduate psychologist, doctorate in a music-psychological subject, a psychological psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in private practice, until 2016 she was board member of the German Society for Psychoanalysis and Music (DGPM), which she co-founded in 2007, and since 2012 has been a freelance writer (publication of five novels 2012, 2013, 2017, 1918, 2020). Since 1988, she has been a lecturer at the Association for Katathymic Image Experience and Imaginative Procedures in Psychotherapy (AGKB, now DGKIP), and has been teaching the method since 2006, among other things, as co-organizer of the annual Berlin training seminar of the German Association for Katathymic Imaginative Psychotherapy (DGKIP) and at the German Psychologists' Academy.

1.Introduction.- 2. the stuff that imaginations are made of.- 3. catathymic imaginative psychotherapy - from initial contact to initial imagination.- 4. short-term therapy with imaginations - the case of Musat.- 5. depth psychology-based psychotherapy with imaginations - the case of Grün.- 6. 6. an analytical psychotherapy with imaginations - the case of Eichel.- 7. systematic presentation of the work with therapeutic imaginations.- 8. spectrum of application and organisation of further training.- 9. imagination in art and spiritual life.